3 Reasons Gigaom Was Great

It whipped around the web last night that Gigaom, a "pioneering" tech blog, was shutting down. Other than "they ran out of money," the reasons why aren't too clear at the moment. (Yes, "running out of money" is, at the end of the day, the only reason needed—but there are still a lot of questions.)

That all said, here's why Gigaom was great...

Personally, it was one of the first places that said "yes" to me. Roughly five years ago, I pitched the editor of WebWorkerDaily (under the Gigaom umbrella) a few guest post ideas that poked around web etiquette and related authenticity, transparency, etc. I'm thankful for that opportunity. (I'm also appalled at my writing, but then again, who ever likes their stuff from half a decade ago?)

Amongst all the tech news porn, Gigaom always felt like a thoughtful, calmer place that reported news items beyond fundings and provided deliberate analysis. Commenters, for the most part, were civilized and as a result, actually readable.

Gigaom writers also tended to be really responsive, so long as you were pitching ideas that were in their universe. Even if that response was a simple "I'll pass" or "no thanks," they at least acknowledged pitches that made it through the first filter.